Events, Moon, Planets in October Home Page Evènements du mois Monthly Sky Charts

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.Events .Moon .Planets .Minor Planets, NEOs .Comets .Shooting Stars .Occultations .Sun .check more! (occultations observers are advised to check in 'Events', and to turn to such dedicated sites like the I.O.T.A). Caution! According to our policy, our site is passing now DST for the southern hemisphere! check more details. don't forget to check the weather! For the US: the NOAA . color codes: Wwd worldwide, UsA USA-Americas, EuA Europe-Africa, AsP Asia-Pacific, Chk Check for Your Zone. check the site's concept and the instructions of use

Editor's Choice Fine Picture Archives Editor's Choice Sky At Tech News color codes: Wwd worldwide, UsA USA-Americas, EuA Europe-Africa, AsP Asia-Pacific, Chk Check for Your Zone. check the site's concept and the instructions of use

Events Home Page

.Events Seen All Month Long .Ephemerides Proper

(data from the former yearly ephemerides generator at Fred Espenak's NASA's eclipse website; miscellaneous data with the 'Astronomical Phenomena for The Year 2017,' a joint work by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office and the U.S. Naval Observatory; to be found at the latter's site; all time UT except otherwise stated)

Wwd Arcturus, the bright star to constellation Boötes, the Herdsman, constitutes a evening star in the northern hemisphere, about West

Wwd In the northern hemisphere, the Great Winter Sky is seen South by dawn. Fine visual and photographic opportunities as the Moon will also come to add!

The Great Winter Sky is seen South by dawn in the northern hemisphere! picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based upon Stellarium

2 Wwd The Orionids shooting stars are usually active October 2nd-November 7th, with their peak usually on Oct. 21-22 more at the date of the peak

3 Wwd First crescent, by all latitudes, is close to Jupiter since twilight! Possible photo opportunties!

First Quarter close to Jupiter! Possible photo opportunities. picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based upon the Stellarium software

5 (1) Wwd First Quarter at all latitudes, close to Saturn tonight!

5 (2) Wwd Moon reaches a southernmost declination at 16:01 UT as it also reaches a descending node at 18:49 UT

5 (3) Wwd There is a occultation of Saturn today by Moon! check more at Occultations; check more too at such sites like "The International Occultation Timing Association" (I.O.T.A.)

6 Wwd There is a occultation of Pluto today by Moon! check more at Occultations; check more too at such sites like "The International Occultation Timing Association" (I.O.T.A.)

10 Wwd Moon is at its apogee at 18:29 UT (distances non available)

20 Wwd Moon reaches a northernmost declination at 08:07 UT, and it also is at a ascending node at 07:28 UT

21 Wwd The Orionids shooting stars usually are peaking on Oct. 21-22 more back

26 Wwd Moon is at its perigee at 10:41 UT (distances non available)

27 EuA AsP Tomorrow morning, at all latitudes, New Moon may be searched about Mars like a morning star, where the Red Planet available

29 Wwd Where Venus and Mercury seen like evening stars, by all latitudes, Moon few past full is close to both!

Moon few past full close to Venus and Mercury, where the latter available! picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based upon the Stellarium software

31 Wwd Waning gibbous Moon at all latitudes, close to Jupiter since twilight! Possible photo opportunties!

Waning gibbous Moon close to Jupiter! Possible photo opportunities. picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based upon the Stellarium software

Occultations observers are advised to turn to such dedicated sites like the I.O.T.A as they may also check below at our Occultation section

Moon Home Page

First Quarter is on October 5th, at 16:47 UT
Full Moon is on October 13th, at 21:08 UT
Last Quarter is on October 21st, at 12:39 UT
New Moon is on October 28th, at 03:38 UT

(source: ephemeris generator at Fred Espenak's NASA's eclipse website)

Planets Home Page

for what a remarkable configuration of a planet is, check our tutorial 'Planets Apparent Motion'

Mercury is reaching a greatest eastern elongation on October 20th, by 03:59. Mercury is a fine evening star at the Tropics and the southern hemisphere only

Mercury and Venus evening star, the northern hemisphere excepted! picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based upon the Stellarium software

Venus is now a evening star. It keeps too low however in the northern hemisphere. Check for it at the Tropics, or the southern hemisphere

Mars, after its conjunction last month, is reappearing like a morning star. It keeps low however worldwide as it is about unavailable in the southern hemisphere

Mars reappearing like a morning star, the northern hemisphere excepted! picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based upon the Stellarium software

Jupiter is now low by 10:30 p.m. local time in the northern hemisphere, relatively high at the Tropics between southwest and West as the gas giant is before West, relatively low in the southern hemisphere. Jupiter is a fine evening star worldwide, and high at the Tropics and the southern hemisphere

Jupiter a fine evening star worldwide! picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based upon the Stellarium software

Saturn is now southwest in the northern hemisphere by 10:30 p.m. local time, the same at the Tropics as it is high West in the southern hemisphere. Following a ring aperture maximum, rings now are closing

Uranus Faraway World At its Best Now! is now reaching its best, as it is reaching a opposition on October 28th by 08:17. Uranus is now high, past East, in the northern hemisphere by 10:30 p.m. local time, high by that time between northeast and East at the Tropics, and relatively high, past northeast in the northern hemisphere

Uranus reaching now its best! picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based upon the Celestia software

Neptune Faraway World Still At its Best! keeps at its best after a opposition last month. It's high in the northern hemisphere South by 10:30 p.m. local time, at the zenith by that time at the Tropics and North, high, in the southern hemisphere

Neptune keeping at its best! picture site 'Amateur Astronomy' based upon the Celestia software

Pluto is now relatively low, southwest in the northern hemisphere, still high, by 10:30 p.m. local time, about the same at the Tropics as the faraway world keeps high West in the southern hemisphere (according to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) since 2006, Pluto is not considered a planet anymore, but categorized like a dwarf planet instead along with Ceres, Eris, Makemake, and Haumea, and the prototype of a new category of 'trans-Neptunian', 'Pluto-class' objects)

Minor Planets, NEOs Home Page

.Minor Planets .Nearest NEOs

Minor Planets

Minor planets are those biggest asteroids in the Asteroid Belt which may be easily observed by amateurs from the Earth, namely Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta (due to the new categorization by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) by 2006, Ceres belongs to the 5 dwarf planets in the solar system with Pluto, Eris, Makemake, and Haumea). check data and charts at our section Minor Planets on the yearly Calendar page as our tutorial 'Asteroids and Asteroid Hunting' is of help too. Any remarkable event linked to a minor planet may have a notice here below

Nearest NEOs

Some small asteroids dubbed Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are regularly making close approaches at Earth. People interested in such close approaches may obtain recent and upcoming data at NASA (JPL) site Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) (their section "Close Approaches"). Miscellaneous data are available. For further observational purposes, check at their ephemeris Generator (via Tools/Neo DB Query) . For more about NEOs see tutorial "About NEOs"

Comets Home Page

Once every time, the solar system treats us with a remarkable comet, a eery view spanning up to thirty degrees of sky! Most of the time however comets are the domain of dedicated observers as mostly weak and, at the most, hovering at the limit of the naked-eye visibility. A good site to get information about current such comets is the British Astronomical Association Comet Section page or also the Weekly Information about Bright Comets page (which often points to comets close to the visual magnitude). Our 'Comets and Comet Hunting' tutorial will also be helpful. Remarkable comets otherwise usually will be presented below!

Shooting Stars Home Page

->note: shooting stars afficionados will be aware of checking Moon at the dates of the showers

• The Orionids back are usually active Oct. 2-Nov. 7 with their peak usually on Oct. 21-22. Their radiant is at R.A. 095° and dec. +16°. Their hourly rate is of 20-23. The Orionids are famed as their parent-comet is 1P/Halley, the most known comet!
• Shooting stars afficionados may turn to such dedicated sites like IMO, The International Meteor Organization for more about the above and about possible minor showers this month

for more about the meteor showers of this month, for possible other meteor showers for this month, and for more about shooting stars, generally, see our tutorial "Shooting Stars"

Occultations Home Page

Each month, Moon occults some relatively bright stars, that is the Moon, beginning either with its bright or its dark visible face, is passing in front of a star. This is called an occultation. The Pleiades, on the other hand, due to their position near the eclipic, are often occulted by Moon too. Some planets, at last, along the year, may be occulted by Moon or they themselves, or their satellites, may be seen too occulting a star. The asteroids too may occult stars. Yearly lists of such phenomenons are to be found at Sky & Telescope/SkyTonight.com, either in their newsstand issues or at their site, as a list of occultations of most brilliant stars, the planets and the Pleiades are available at the I.O.T.A site (I.O.T.A. stands for "The International Occultation Timing Association"). Most notable occultations are signaled below

The configuration of Moon makes 2019 a great year of occultations of planets and minor planets by the Moon as, amazingly none of the bright stars usually occulted by Moon, like Aldebaran, Antares, Regulus or Spica, will be!

Saturn back is occulted by Moon on Oct. 5th, 2019 by 21:00 UT! The show is available for the Easter Island, S. South America, South Georgia, Southern Africa. check more at such sites like "The International Occultation Timing Association" (I.O.T.A.)

Pluto back is occulted by Moon on Oct. 6th, 2019 by 09:00 UT! The show is available for Australia, Melanesia, S.E. Micronesia, W. Polynesia. check more at such sites like "The International Occultation Timing Association" (I.O.T.A.)

check on this site for more about occultations, theoretically

Sun Home Page

click to last Sun